Jim Bouton, the former New York Yankees pitcher who wrote the tell-all book "Ball Four," died Wednesday in Massachusetts after a lengthy battle with vascular dementia, his family said in a statement.
He was 80.
A former All-Star, the hard-throwing Bouton played 10 seasons in the major leagues, including seven with the Yankees. He won 62 games and had a 3.57 ERA for his career.
But his greatest fame came from "Ball Four," the best-selling book published in 1970 that chronicled his previous season and exposed some of baseball's secrets -- upsetting some former teammates in the process.